Voldemort: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

The dark wizard who attacked Harry Potter as a baby, and failed to kill him, is the central villain of the saga. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), directed by Chris Columbus, he is a weakened spirit carried on the back of Professor Quirrell's head, and Ian Hart is credited as Quirrell and as the villain's voice. From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), directed by Mike Newell, Ralph Fiennes plays him in a restored body.

Why is he so evil? In the films the clearest evidence is how far he goes to avoid dying. The Stone can give its owner endless life, and Harry keeps it out of his reach, while Half-Blood Prince reveals that he split his soul into Horcruxes to make himself hard to kill. Around that pursuit he leads a movement of followers, the Death Eaters, and the graveyard in Goblet of Fire ends with the death of Cedric Diggory.

What is he called? The credits use several names: Ralph Fiennes is credited as Lord Voldemort, Ian Hart as Professor Quirrell / Voldemort (voice), and the cast lists also include "He Who Must Not Be Named", Tom Riddle, Tom Riddle (11 Years) and Tom Riddle (16 Years). Tom Riddle is the name tied to the enchanted diary in Chamber of Secrets. The wizarding world is frightened of him: after his return at the end of Goblet of Fire, the Ministry of Magic refuses to accept it until the battle at the Ministry in Order of the Phoenix.

The villain figures in seven of the eight Harry Potter films, and Prisoner of Azkaban mentions him only indirectly. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry finds Quirrell waiting for him at the enchanted mirror, not Snape. The weakened spirit sits on the back of Quirrell's head, and when Harry wins the Stone and Quirrell is hurt by his touch, that spirit flees.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), the threat comes through an enchanted diary that belonged to Tom Riddle. It shows Hagrid being blamed for the Chamber being opened fifty years earlier, and below the school Harry meets Riddle, who has been controlling Ginny Weasley through its pages. Harry stabs the diary with a basilisk fang, which destroys Riddle and revives Ginny. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) keeps the dark wizard offstage: Sirius Black is said to have helped him kill Harry's parents, and Peter Pettigrew, still at large at the end, remains a danger.

Goblet of Fire is the return. The Triwizard cup is a Portkey that carries Harry and Cedric Diggory to a graveyard, where Wormtail kills Cedric and uses Harry's blood to bring his master back to a body. He summons his followers and duels Harry, who escapes with Cedric's body, and Dumbledore tells the school the news while the Ministry refuses to accept it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) shows that denial in action: Dolores Umbridge takes over Hogwarts, Sirius is killed at the Ministry by Bellatrix, and the villain fights Dumbledore, briefly possesses Harry and flees. Minister Fudge then admits the truth and leaves office.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) explains how he survives. A memory that Slughorn finally gives up shows the soul split into Horcruxes, and Dumbledore takes Harry to a sea cave to retrieve one, only to find the locket is a fake. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), the Ministry falls, the trio hunt the Horcruxes, and the villain breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and takes the Elder Wand. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) brings the hunt to a head at Hogwarts and ends with his death.

The most important relationship is with Harry Potter, because the prophecy explained at the end of Order of the Phoenix says neither can live while the other survives. The link runs deeper than that: Harry's mother's sacrifice shielded him in Sorcerer's Stone, and by Deathly Hallows: Part 2 a piece of the dark wizard's soul is inside Harry himself, which is why Harry must die for the villain to be beaten.

Albus Dumbledore is his chief opponent. They fight in Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore asks Harry to coax out of Slughorn the memory that exposes the Horcruxes in Half-Blood Prince, and the Elder Wand is taken from Dumbledore's tomb in Part 1. Severus Snape is the follower who is not what he seems: in Part 1 he tells his master at Malfoy Manor when the Order plans to move Harry, yet in Part 2 the Pensieve reveals that he secretly served Dumbledore. The snake kills Snape before Harry sees the truth.

Bellatrix Lestrange is the most visible Death Eater, escaping Azkaban in Order of the Phoenix and fatally wounding Dobby in Part 1. Lucius Malfoy, who plants the diary on Ginny in Chamber of Secrets, and Draco Malfoy, given a secret task in Half-Blood Prince, show how his influence reaches whole families. Wormtail restores his body, Quirrell hosts his spirit, and Nagini is one of his Horcruxes.

He dies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, struck down by the very killing curse he casts at Harry. Getting to that duel takes the whole saga, because every anchor of his survival has to be removed first. Riddle's diary was stabbed with a fang back in Chamber of Secrets, Ron cuts through the locket with the Sword of Gryffindor in Part 1, Ron and Hermione pierce Hufflepuff's cup with a basilisk fang, and Harry destroys Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Requirement. That leaves Nagini, plus the fragment lodged in Harry.

Harry accepts what that fragment means. He turns the Resurrection Stone to bring back his lost loved ones, walks into the Forbidden Forest and lets the dark wizard strike him down. In a limbo like place Dumbledore tells him he may return, and he does. Neville then draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and kills Nagini, while Molly Weasley deals with Bellatrix.

The last confrontation turns on the Elder Wand. Because Harry had earlier overpowered Draco, the wand answers to Harry, so his disarming spell sends the green curse back to its caster. Harry afterward chooses to destroy the wand rather than keep it. The final scene jumps forward by nearly two decades, to a platform where his friends and their children gather for the Hogwarts Express.

In my opinion, the best scene is the graveyard in Goblet of Fire, because it is the moment the series stops being a school story. Wormtail's ritual, the return to a body and the gathering of the Death Eaters build into one sequence, and Ralph Fiennes arrives as a presence the earlier films had only hinted at. It could be argued that the structure helps him: Sorcerer's Stone gave us a voice, Chamber of Secrets a teenage memory, and only then a full body.

My second pick is the Riddle diary reveal in Chamber of Secrets, where Harry stands in the Chamber below the school and meets the boy who framed Hagrid. It works because Riddle is charming before he is frightening. Third, I would choose the sea cave and the Slughorn memory in Half-Blood Prince, which give the villain a method (the Horcruxes) as well as a motive. That being said, the Ministry's denial in Order of the Phoenix may be the most underrated part of his story, since he barely needs to act while Umbridge does the work.

If you want the arc in one sitting, watch Goblet of Fire, then Order of the Phoenix, then Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and follow the Harry Potter movies in order for the rest.